Science, Spoken

Scientists calculate that the top 200 meters of ocean alone contains up to 21 million metric tons of plastic. And that wasn't even counting microfibers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A cable cut a large gash into the radio telescope this week and it’s uncertain when it will be back in working order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Solar facilities kill tens of thousands of birds every year, and no one is quite sure why. An artificial-intelligence-powered birder is on the case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A group of ecologists and biologists say the world's ticks, leeches, and tapeworms need love and conservation, too. Now they've got a 12-point plan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New computer simulations model an alternate way of thinking about the cosmos: as a cyclic universe that has no beginning or end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More than a billion tons of it could enter the environment in the next 20 years. It's time, advocates say, to put a sin tax on single-use plastic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new model of photosynthesis points to an evolutionary principle governing light-harvesting organisms that might apply throughout the universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Regimbartia attenuata doesn’t take too kindly to being eaten. Once locked inside a frog’s maw, it turns around and starts heading for the exit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Modern scholars have only been able to speculate about where the huge stones came from—until now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The poetry editor of The Journal of the American Medical Association talks about medicine, metaphor, and how literature can even improve patient outcomes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The movement of demonstrators echoes the fluid collective responses of the animal world, as groups respond to threats and signal across large spaces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 2015, Oak Ridge National Laboratory produced the first plutonium fuel in the US in nearly 30 years. Now it’s headed to another planet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers collected sediment thousands of feet deep, filtered out bacteria, and revived the cells. But fear not—the destruction of humanity by ancient microbes is not nigh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are hundreds of trials currently in the works. Here’s everything you need to know about the ones edging ahead in the global race. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is this your card? A recent study found that participants will select the suit or number they were primed to choose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new experiment on how rapidly atoms can tunnel through a barricade revives a physics debate about how time passes on the quantum scale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seismometers pick up human activity, like driving. When Covid arrived, scientists watched that global seismic noise plummet by 50 percent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even with immediate action, 710 million metric tons of plastic will enter the environment in the next two decades, scientists show. Welcome to Plastic Planet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s hard enough to get an autonomous vehicle to work on Earth. It’s even harder on another planet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Early results from the team in the UK show their approach is safe and provokes an immune response. But that doesn't mean it works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Electric vehicle makers hope to roll out super long-lasting batteries. That raises interesting questions about resources, performance—and a battery's second act. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

These creatures have evolved special "nanobodies" that may have an edge over human antibodies when it comes to developing a new treatment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you drive, tiny bits of plastic fly off your tires and brakes. Now scientists have shown how all that road muck is blowing into “pristine” environments like the Arctic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s not useful to think about coronavirus coming in synchronized surges. This is a long, lingering epidemic that is only just getting started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Honestly, you should just be disinfecting your reusable bags—the real issue is airborne virus, not infected shopping totes, experts say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices